Greece Hotels Travel - North of Ithaka: A Granddaughter Returns to Greece and Discovers Her Roots
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List Price: $13.95
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Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780312340292
ISBN: 031234029X
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2006-04-04
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2006-04-04
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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In North of Ithaka, Eleni Gage returns to the remote Greek village of Lia, where her father was born and her grandmother murdered, to rebuild the ruins of her namesake's home and come to terms with her family's tragic history. In doing so, she leaves behind a sparkling social life and successful career to continue the tale of a family and a place which her father, Nicholas Gage, made famous over twenty years ago with his international bestseller, Eleni. Along the way she survives humorous misadventures, absorbs fascinating folklore, and comes to understand that memories of the dead can bring new life to the present. Part travel memoir and part family saga, North of Ithaka is, above all, a journey home.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Dream Story - Great Characters Who are Real
Comment: If you didn't already know, the Nazis took over many homes in Greece and murdered their owners who refused to cooperate. This is the story of a granddaughter from NY who returned to claim her ancestor's land and rebuild the home in the same fashion as it had been built. I believe that she shares the same name as her grandmother.
The village is in northwestern Greece on the border with Albania. Eleni lives in the village and hires the workers and becomes part of the community. It reminded me a bit like "A Year in Provence" and "Under the Tuscan Sun" in its humor and characters. Eleni Gage is a wonderful writer with her father being an accomplished author as well. It is a fun read that I highly recommend.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: superficial
Comment: I had high hopes for this book in view of the rich experiences of Nicholas Gage and his two fine books so worthy of that experience. Sadly, this book struck me as superficial and, as often happens these days in writers who drawing on personal experience, narcissistic. I gave the book a chance, but really had to stop before I was half finished.
It's not enough to be a good writer; you need to have a mature sensibility and not leave the impression that you've spent too much of your life shopping. Disclosure: I am of Greek descent and we need more worthy attention to be paid to Greece in the modern era, books like those by Miller and Patrick Leigh Fermor are an antidote to this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What an excellent book!
Comment: As a Greek-American, I've been looking for a memoir about the Greek-American experience that I could identify with. Over the past few years, I've read several memoir-style books, but none really hit home...until now. Even thought my family is not from Epiros, I did not grow up in Massachusetts, and my family did not have such a traumatic post-WWII experience, I could totally identify with Eleni Gage's story of straddling two countries and exploring the duality of her persona. This struggle to "fit in" in both Greece and America is something that I have dealt with and am continuing to deal with, and Eleni is able to describe the emotions and process more eloquently than I ever could!
Eleni's elegant prose makes this book easy to read, and I especially enjoyed the sprinkling of folk lore and traditions that she included. By the end, I wanted to read more, to find out what happened afterwards...always a sign of a great book!
I will recommend this book to all my friends, Greek and non-Greek alike! Bravo, Eleni!
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Summary: A magificent book
Comment: This book is a rare treat.
I loved reading it - I was mesmerized by it and during this snowed-in weekend when I read it, I was transported to Lia, where I lived under its magnificent sky with the changing sunset colors (enjoyed from the vernada of the Haidis house); observed up close the house reconstruction project; and came to know an entire village, feeling if not a Liotan myslef, at least like a frequent visitor.
What also springs out of the book, perhaps more than Lia and its people, is the author herself: nice, smart, mature, perceptive and talented.
And a note to her father: you're a great author but she is at least as good a writer as you, not to say better. So please give up the comparisons with her at the Thanksgiving table, there are genetics out there and there is also evolution -- and she has both aplenty. I'm sure you glow with justified pride having her as a daughter. Anyone would!
Bottom Line: A SUPERB BOOK - NOT TO BE MISSED!
Customer Rating:
Summary: the granddaughter speaks
Comment: The star is still her grandmother, Eleni, killed during the Greek Civil War for trying to save her children. In a word, it's the story of Eleni returning to Lia, the family village, to remember her grandmother close up and rebuild the family house. Without the memory of reading ELENI by her father, Nick Gage, I would never have read or understood NORTH OF ITHAKA. So that's the review: first read Nick's book about his mother, most likely the most riveting and compelling of my 55 year reading career. You should read ELENI, and you must have to understand NORTH OF ITHAKA.
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